


Rats in Remnant

by Lord_of_Critters



Category: RWBY, Warhammer Fantasy
Genre: Crossover, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28647192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_of_Critters/pseuds/Lord_of_Critters
Summary: What will the Ubersreik Five do now that they have ended up in Remnant? Try and save the world, of course. And, with team RWBY and co. in tow, they just might be able to pull it off. But, how will they return home and what will they do if they get home? If anything is even left when they return...
Kudos: 1





	1. A New Gate

The fall of Ubersreik had been a tragedy. It was one of the most important trade cities in the Reikland. It was popular among merchants in the Grey Mountains because of its location, and allowed easy access for travelers to get to major cities such as Altdorf and Gunbürg. The downfall was quick, all of the town’s folk died. But, five soon to be heroes made it out. The Ubersreik Five, as they were dubbed. A five man band that had dedicated themselves to ridding the Reikland of Skaven taint, and trying to stop the unyielding tides of Skaven, Chaos, and Beastmen hordes from destroying all they set their eyes on in the Empire provinces. Each of the five would have never even talked to each other, let alone become friends, if it weren’t for the Skaven attacking Ubersreik. They were all there when Ubersreik fell, but for varying reasons. Victor Saltzpyre, a Skaven obsessed Witch Hunter, had recruited Markus Kruber, a P.T.S.D. ridden war veteran turned mercenary, to help him escort Sienna Fuegonasus, a Bright Wizard obsessed with the power trip that came with using the Winds of Magic, to her trial in Ubersreik for suspicion of having killed the son of the Burgomeister of Ubersreik, and burning down his mill. Bardin, a veteran Dwarf Ranger on a quest to find the riches hidden within a lost dwarven hold, had gone to Ubersreik in search of a Dwarfish tome that could help him decipher the map leading to Karak Zorn. And, Kerillian, a Wood Elf that had received news of the end of the world, was keeping an eye on Ubersreik, for it had been the supposed epicenter for the end of the world. But, that was years ago. Now, they had netted down a base of operations. First at the Red Moon Inn; now at Taal’s Horn Keep. Getting quests from both Franz Lohner, a bar keep that joined the group after they moved location from the inn to the keep, and an unknown man named Okri, they stop the ravenous chaotic hordes from overrunning the Reik. But their quest this time is rather odd. 

“Another gate, eh? That’ll be easy, but why are you sending all five of us?” Kruber questioned. 

“Because, this has the potential to be-” Franz got cut off. 

“World ending, yeah yeah yeah. You said the same thing about the Skittergate, and only four of us went that time. So, why all five of us this time?” 

“Because, this is way worse than the Skittergate. At Least then, we had a few chances to destroy it if you failed the first time, but we don’t have that luxury this time. Plus, anything could be coming out of this portal, not just Norse men. That’s why we need all five of you to go. To make sure it does get stopped.”

Kruber saw that there was no sense in arguing with Franz. Franz wouldn’t budge unless Kruber spent the next few hours arguing with him, and the Ubersreik five didn’t have that kind of time to waste.

“Fine, but are you sure you and Olesya will be fine?”

“Trust me Kruber, this place is hidden better than most undercities in the old world. We won't be found. But, if we do, I’ll just have to steal one of your swords.” Franz said jokingly.

“Kruber, hurry up. I can’t keep this waystone open forever.” Olesya called.

“Coming.”

Oleysa Pimenova was their getaway driver back when the five were still stationed in the in. But, she had taken up using waystones to get the five in and out of trouble once they settled at the keep.

“Everyone ready?” Oleysa asked.

“As ready as we can be,” Saltzpyre responded.

“Alright. Three. Two. One.”

Within seconds, the Ubersreik Five appeared in a forest within the province of Middenheim. The five stood next to the way stone, getting acquainted with their surroundings.

“Well there’s no point in standing around, wasting time. Come on, dawri.” Bardin said as he set off towards their mission.

Saltzpyre followed close behind, quietly cursing the dwarf out for not shutting up for even a minute. Bardin was always either singing or commenting on what's happening, even during battle. Sienna and Kerillian followed next, making sure to give Saltzpyre space. And, Kruber was at the back, thinking. He had a terrible feeling about this.

* * *

“Hurry up, Bardin!” Kruber yelled, trying to hurry along his dwarven friend. 

“Quit rushing me, Azumgi,” Bardin replied, taking pot shots at the Skaven trailing them. He may have been a dwarf, but Bardin could easily keep up with his friends if he needed to. 

“Quit worrying about the rats, dwarf,” Kerillian demanded, “Killing them is not worth getting crushed.” 

The tunnel the five were in had been rigged to blow, and was starting to collapse. Some Skaven scouts had seen the Ubersreik Five approaching their cavern, and they readied for war. Normally, the Skaven wouldn’t have even cared about some random adventures passing by. Maybe, they would send some Skaven Slaves to murder the group if they were foolish enough to wander too close to the Skaven’s warren. But, these rats were no fools. They knew exactly who these five adventurous were, and what they were doing here. They were determined not to suffer the same fate as Rasknitt.

“Ha! These rats couldn’t kill a crippled pig!” Bardin taunted as the five entered a large room.

A gate closed behind them. The room was an arena. It wasn’t much bigger than the main room in the keep where the Ubersreik five lived.

“You-you do-gooders have caused enough pain-turmoil,” said a mysterious figure, “This is where you-you shall all fall to me-me, mighty Tresqot Wildmaw!”

“Ah great, more Skaven to fight,” Sienna complained.

“Quit whining, Sienna.” Saltzpyre said.

“Yeah, Zharrin. Be happy it’s _only_ going to be Skaven,” Bardin jested.

“Enough talk-discussion. You all die-die...NOW!!!” Tresqot cackled while he scurried away.

All of the gates to the arena flew open, releasing hundreds of Skaven. One after another, they slayed everything from overwhelming hordes of Skaven Slaves to elite Stormvermin. They shot down countless amounts of Warpfire Throwers and Ratling Guns. But, no matter how many the five killed, Skaven kept pouring into the room. Until, _THUMP_ , one gated closed. Then another. Then the rest.

“You-you fought well,” Tresqot said, reappearing with a remote, “But, now you all die-die.”

The floor cracked open, and Bardin fell right into the floor.

“Bardin!” Kerillian exclaimed.

She rushed to the crack, and saw a white portal beneath the floor. Kerillian looked into the portal horrified. Then, she got hit with a blinding white light, and the portal became black.

“Kerillian, behind you!” Kruber shouted.

Kerillian turned around, being barely able to see, then got tackled by a gutter runner. Both of them rolled into a portal. Then, the gates a level above them opened, and Skaven started to flood the room again. The gap in the floor had been steadily expanding, revealing more and more of the portal beneath them every second. The three of the five left were separated. Sienna was on one side, and Kruber and Victor on the other. The portal erupted again, changing to the color yellow this time. Victor and Kruber had little trouble fighting off the Skaven, but Sienna wasn’t doing too well. She was starting to become overwhelmed; not even her magic could hold back the hordes. Then, a Stormvermin blocked one of her attacks, and another shoved her into the portal. The portal erupted, and changed color to Red. Kruber and Victor got knocked onto their stomachs. Kruber tried to stand up, but got shoved onto his back.

“Any last-final words?” Tresqot mocked

“Yeah,” Kruber responded, “Goodbye.”

Kruber grabbed Victor’s leg, and slid backwards into the portal.

“DAMN YOU KRUBER!!!” Victor cursed Kruber out before he fully got dragged into the portal.

“Victory is mine-mine!” Tresqot crackled as he reveled in his victory. He wasn’t supposed to banish the five heroes that were stopping them with the portal, just open it, but that mattered little. Getting rid of the Ubersreik five would surely gain him more respect within his clan. Hopefully the portal would keep them out of the way for good. Where did it lead anyways?

* * *

Kruber woke up, startled. He sat up, and looked around. He was in some forest. _Great,_ he thought _That damn portal could have taken me anywhere. At least it didn’t kill me._ A groan came from behind him. He turned around to see none other than Victor Saltzpyre.

“Saltzpyre?” Kruber asked, “Saltzpyre, are you awake?” Before he knew it, Kruber got socked square in the jaw.

“What the bloody hell was that for?”

“For dragging us into a Skaven portal. You could have gotten us killed!”

“Key word, could. We _could_ have died. If we stayed there, we _would_ have died.”

“Hmp.” Saltzpyre didn’t want to admit it, but Kruber was right. “Where are we anyway.”

“Oh,” Kruber paused, “I’m not quite sure, sir. Some sort of forest, but I don’t recognize it.”

“Great. We’re in an unknown forest, with half our team missing, likely outside of the Reikland. What could possibly-”

“Shush.”

“Kruber, what are you doing?” Kruber was sneaking around quietly.

“Don’t you hear that?” Saltzpyre stuck an ear out. It was completely silent besides some muffled bird call.

“No, I don’t. What is it?”

“It’s voices.”

“Voices? Kruber we’ve been in this forest for less than five minutes, please don’t tell me you’ve already gone insane.”

“Victor, I know what I’m hearing. Those _are_ voices.” Kruber paused. “Follow me.”

Kruber started wandering off into the forest. Saltzpyre didn’t really trust Kruber’s “voices” he was hearing, but he didn’t want to be lost in some random forest by himself, either. So, begrudgingly, he followed Kruber. A few minutes passed, and Saltzpyre got lost in his own thoughts. _Are we in Lustria?_ he thought _This doesn’t seem dense enough to be a jungle, and we wouldn’t have heard some other animals than a bird by now. Maybe it’s that forest the elf is from. What was its name? Athen Laura? Astral Lorenz?_ His thoughts were cut short when he bumped into the back of Kruber.

“Sorry, Saltzpyre.” He said, turning around to pick Saltzpyre up.

“No worries, Kruber. Why did you stop?”

“Oh, there’s a road up a head.”

“Any people?”

“Uh, no.”

“Well, your insanity at least lead us to a road. Come on.”

The two headed towards the road. It wasn’t too far away. About twenty-thirty yards off. But, Saltzpyre heard something, voices. He started to speed up. The voices grew louder, and he sped up. Again, the voices grew, and Saltzpyre quicked. Eventually he broke into a sprint. _The voices,_ he thought _I can’t let the voices overcome me_. Eventually we broke through the tree line, and reached the road. He doubled over. He only remembered Kruber existed when he caught up, and finally spoke.

“Jeez, Saltzpyre. What made you take off like that?”

“The voices,” Saltzpyre whispered, “Didn’t you hear their words?”

He didn’t get a response back. So Saltzpyre looked towards Kruber and saw four teenagers, all armed, standing a bit down the path. Saltzpyre didn’t care though. He was too out of breath too.

“Ah. Hello,” Kruber said

“Hey,” Responded the girl with black hair and red highlights.

“Excuse our entrance. I’m Kruber, and my friend here is Saltzpyre.” Saltzpyre didn’t respond. He just stayed doubled-over and waved Kruber off instead, “Uh. We were wondering if you tell us where we are.”

“You don’t know where you are?” Responded the man with the black hair.

“No. You see,” Kruber paused, debating if he should lie to the kids. “We got turned around in the forest a while ago, and didn’t make our way out until now.”

“You’re on a road in between Patch and Mistral.” The man had seemed to believe Kruber’s half lie.

“We’re actually heading to Mistral now. You can tag along if you like,” added the blonde man.

“Oh. Sure. We’ll-"

“Hold on a minute,” butted in Saltzpyre, “Let me speak to my friend here, first.”

In a swift movement Saltzpyre both himself and Kruber around.

“Are you an idiot, Kruber?”

“What?”

“Blindly trusting the first people you come across? Have I taught you nothing?”

“What, would you rather be stuck on this road with _no_ directions?”

“Yes. All the Skaven need is a little bit of your trust and, bam, you fell right into their trap.”

“Skaven? Trap? Victor, we’re not in the Empire anymore.”

“How can you tell?”

“Last time I checked, the teenagers didn’t carry around weapons, on random paths in the forest heading to places called ‘Patch’ and ‘Mistral’.”

Saltzpyre paused. “Fine. We’ll follow the children, but all blame is on you if this is a trap.”

The two men spun around to face the teens.

“We’ll accompany you on the way to ‘Mistral’, but will likely be departing from you there.” Saltzpyre said sternly.

“O-kay? I’m Ruby,” the girl with black hair said, ”that’s Nora” she pointed to the ginger girl, “that’s Ren,” she pointed to the man with black hair, “and this is Jaune.” She pointed to the blonde man.

“Nice to meet you all,” Kruber said.

The group walked past the two men, and Kruber and Saltzpyre just watched them for a moment.

“You could have been a bit more friendly, you know,” Kruber mentioned

“Stay quiet and keep close, Kruber,” Saltzpyre retorted, seemingly ignoring Kruber’s remark. Saltzpyre set off, keeping a good distance behind the teens, and Kruber followed suit.

* * *

To say Wiess was having a bad day would be lying. Her whole month was terrible. First her father forces her to return home after the Fall of Beacon, a week later forces her to sing a ballet, then abuses her, and finally, after the incident at the party, disavows her as heiress. And it wasn’t helping that the rest of her family was either missing or sucking up to her father. The only one that was there for her was Klein, their butler. But, he was often off with some other servants or tending to one of the other Schnees. Her time back was confusing and unpleasant. But, Weiss knew one thing for certain: Jacques Schnee must pay… somehow. Weiss didn’t think that far ahead, nor could she. Her head was too cloudy to think straight. So she decided training would be the best option. Only basic stuff for now, parries, thrust, swipes. It was all she could do without aggravating herself. She trained for a half hour before, _CRASH_. Something fell in her closet. But there was nothing that could have fallen in her closet. The only hard objects in there were on the ground, and it was too loud to be any clothing. Slowly, Weiss crept over to the closest. Her mind raced. What could be in the closet? A serial killer? Grimm? Her own father? Weiss flung the doors open, ready for a fight, only for a midget to fall out and land on his back in front of her.

“Who are you, and why are you in my closet?” Weiss demanded.

“Ah. Well, I’m Bardin Gorekson. A Veteran Ranger and Ironbreaker, among other things.” The dwarf extended his hand, but Weiss didn’t flinch, keeping the rapier pointed at him. “As for why I am in your closet, well, I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Weiss kept her weapon steady, but tilted her head.

“Why yes, dawri.” The dwarf picked himself up and dusted himself off.

“Weiss.”

“Weiss it is then. Anyway, me and my companions were going to stop another Skaven warp gate. And everything was going smoothly until a Warlock Master named Tresqot Wildmaw came out and activated the portal. I fell in, and don’t remember too much after that.”

“Skaven? Warp gate? Warlock Master? Do you really expect me to believe any of this?”

“Why yes daw-, er, Weiss. Come, have a seat. I’ll tell you every last detail.” Bardin, despite being threatened, nonchalantly walked over to Weiss’ bed, hopped on, and patted next to him for Weiss to join. She was skeptical of the dwarf’s motives, but maybe he could help her.

* * *

Kerillian rolled down the hill for a solid five seconds. Once she reached the bottom, she quickly steadied herself, and prepared to get attacked. She had a few scrapes, but the Gutter Runner ultimately didn’t get a chance to land a proper attack on her.

“Where are you sneak rat?” She whispered to herself. She could hear his chattering in the woods, somewhere in the trees.

“Assassin rat to you-you, elf-thing.” It taunted Kerillian from the trees. Unannounced to him, Kerillian home was the trees.

“Seek.” Her words echoed throughout the forest as she shot off three arrows, each a glowing, light blue. A few seconds later, the Gutter Runner’s corpse fell from a tree only a few feet in front of her.

“You get what you deserve, sneak rat.” The arrows faded from the Skaven’s body. Kerillian observed the body for a moment, and noticed something strange. There were only two puncture wounds. Her guided arrows never missed, so where did the third go? She remembered it went in front of her and to the right a little, so that’s where she headed.

Blake and Sun’s recruitment attempts went horribly. Every fanus they asked denied their offer. Either because most fanus didn’t see the White Fang as a threat, or they have people to care for or significant others at home. Those two things combined killed their chances of recruiting anyone.

“You think we should try again tomorrow?” Sun asked.

“We have to. We can’t take the entire White Fang on by ourselves. Besides, what plans do you have?”

Sun chuckled, “Yeah, I guess you’re- OW!”

“Sun! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just stung a lot.” 

“What hit you?” The fanus looked down to see an arrow had pierced right through his arua and was now embedded in his arm.

“An arrow.” Sun grunted. Then, both fanuses watched in amazement as the arrow faded into thin air.

“What kind of arrow was that?”

“I don’t know, but it came from over there.” Sun pointed into the forest. “Let’s go see who shot it.”

Before Blake could object, Sun rushed off onto the forest. Forcing Blake to follow.

Kerillian had been following the arrow's direction for a while. She hadn’t heard anything for about two minutes, besides her own footsteps. Then, she heard the unmistakable sound of leaves and beaches crunching under something’s feet. She ducked behind a tree and waited. Surprisingly enough, the crunching came from people.

“Sun. Sun. Sun!”

“What?”

“Please never run off like that again.” Kerillian peaked around the tree and saw two people. Well, almost people. They looked like humans, but had animal appendages. The man had a monkey tail, and the woman had cat ears. Kerillian decided that maybe these people could help her.

“Hello?”

The two animal people jumped, and turned to face Kerillian.

“Excuse me, I’m a bit lost, do you think you can point me to the nearest town?”

The two animal people looked at each other.

“Are you a fanus?” asked the woman.

“A fanus?”

“You don’t know what a fanus is?”

“Well, I assume their animal people like you.”

“Uh, kind of.”

“So, what is a human doing in Menagerie?” asked the man

Kerillian scoffed. “Agh. Human? I am an elf, ‘fanus’”

The two fanus looked confused.

“An elf? What kind of fanus is that?” asked the man.

“I’m not a fanus either. I’m an elf.”

The two fanus paused.

“Where are you from?” asked the woman.

“Not from here, evidently. Tell you what, lead me to a town, and I’ll tell you everything.”

The boy shrugged.

“Alright then. I’m Sun by the way. And, she is Blake.”

“I’m Kerillian.”

* * *

Sienna steadied herself against a tree. Apparently that “push” from the Stormvermin was actually a stab. Sienna had a good sized wound in her chest, and would probably bleed out soon if she didn’t get medical attention. Her best chance was to pick a direction, and shamble as fast as she could. After three minutes of walking, she stumbled across a house. She knew this was her only chance. Luckily, someone was outside to help her. Sienna spotted the woman with the mechanical arm, and started yelling for help.

“Help me! Help me, please! I’m dying!” The woman turned around, and rushed towards Sienna.

“Oh god, what happened to you?” Sienna was starting to fade out of reality. “Hello? Hello? What is your name?” Sienna couldn’t respond. She just slowly slipped into darkness.

Sienna woke up. _Thank god that was just a dream_. Then Sienna looked around the room, and realized that this was no dream. The woman from outside walked in.

“Oh, you’re awake.” Sienna said nothing, and just stared in confusion. 

“My name’s Yang. If some random dude walks in, that’s my father, Tai.”

“Okay. I’m Sienna, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Sienna. You’re going to have to stay with us for a few days while you heal. You must have gotten beat up pretty badly to get a wound like that, especially with an aura.”

“Aura?”

“Yeah, an aura. Everyone has one.”

“Really?”

“Yup. Everyone in Remnant.”

“Ah, well, you see, I’m not from Remnant.” Yang stared at Sienna with disbelief.

“It’s true. I’m from a place called the Reikland.”

“Then how did you get here?”

“Portal. I got shoved in. Well, stabbed in I guess.”

“Sounds interesting. Please, go on.”

“Well, it’s a long story…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone. First of all, thanks for reading this. It’s the first thing I have properly written and made public, so any feedback is much appreciated. This is a crossover I am going to be working on in my free time. So, if updates are slow, that’s why. RWBY and Warhammer have little to nothing in common, so I’m going to try and make some things simplified so people from both fandoms can try to get into the story. But, that should only be for the first few chapters, or until I think you guys are well enough acquainted with Warhammer lore. Spoilers for RWBY and Warhammer, obviously, but mostly RWBY. Warhammer lore is a bit messy, especially the lore surrounding the Ubersreik Five and the End Times. If you want to know more about Warhammer Fantasy lore, I recommend watching Loremaster_of_Sotek on YouTube. He has a bunch of highly detailed videos explaining a lot of the lore. The majority of it will probably not be touched for a while, if at all, but reading up on Skaven lore might help for this beginning section. But, hey, maybe you’ll find some of the other parts of the lore interesting too. Besides that, there's not much else. So, again, thanks for reading this, and any and all feedback is appreciated.


	2. New Company

“For the last time Sun, no, I am not a Fanus, I am an elf and no, I do not have brain damage.” Kerillian said as they were walking towards the mayor’s house.

“Well it’s a lot more believable than you just appearing in the forest, and fighting a rat faunus with magic arrows!”

“It was a skaven gutter runner, not a faunus.”

“Whatever!” Sun crossed his arms in defeat, and stomped ahead of the two. The answer Kerillian gave them didn’t sit right with Sun, although Blake whole-heartedly believed it. Apparently, he took problem with it, but a deal’s a deal. Blake got Kerillian, and Sun, patched up and explained where they were, and Kerillian gave them her backstory and how she got here in return.

“Don’t worry about him,” Blake said, “He’s just angry that you managed to pierce his aura with one arrow.”

“I heard that!” Sun called from the front.

Once they reached the house, Blake knocked on the door, but it was taking a while for anyone to respond.

Kerillian stood on the porch, and observed her surroundings. _Am I in the lands of Nippon?_ she thought, _It would explain why I don’t recognize anything besides the architecture._ Before she could continue, Blake started speaking.

“That’s odd. I thought my parents would be home right now.”

“Oh, hello!” a voice called from behind them.

The three turned around to see a cat faunus that looked similar to Blake but much older.

“Hey, mom,” Blake said.

“Sup, Ms. Belladonna,” Sun added.

“Who’s your friend?” Ms. Belladonna asked.

“My name is Kerillian,” she said, stiffening upright, “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you too, Kerillian.”

“Uh, mom? Do you think you can let us into the house; dad isn’t answering the door.”

“Oh, of course sweetheart.” Ms. Belladonna fumbled with the door for a minute before getting it open. Once she did, the four of them walked into a living room.

“Kerillian,” Blake said, “stay here for a minute; I have to go talk to my father real quick.” Kerillian nodded, and Blake walked off towards a closed door.

“Kerillian,” Ms. Belladonna said, “make yourself at home. Would you like some tea, maybe?”

“Ah, thank you Ms. Belladonna, but I’m fine for now.”

“Okay, and just call me Kali.”

Kerillian nodded and sat down on one of the couches. Sun sat on the one across from her, and gave her a dirty look.

“Oh, come now, Sun. It isn’t that far fetched.” Kerillian said.

“Yes it is! Think about it. You claim to come from a magical world full of monsters and witchcraft, claim you know nothing about arua or fanuses or even Remnant itself, and Blake just takes your word for it!”

Kerillian sighed. “You said everyone has an aura, right? Something that protects them from attacks?” Sun nodded. “Then, how come I can do this?” Kerillian took out an arrow, and made a small cut on the back of her hand with the head. “Believe me now?”

“Nope. Your aura was broken from the fight with the faunus.”

“Skaven.”

“Whatever.”

“Okay, then. How about this.” Kerillian took out a notebook and handed it to Sun. To his amazement, the book was filled with symbols, the likes of which he’s never seen before. “What about that, Sun?”

“It...it’s...it’s nothing. Yeah, just meaningless symbols written down on a page.”

Kerillian just rolled her eyes and took the notebook back. “There really is no convincing you, is there?”

“Nope. And, I will never believe you until you give me something truly concrete.”

“I did, and you turned it away.”

“It wasn’t concrete enough. A junior detective like me knows when something is fake or not.”

“No wonder you’re a _junior_ detective.” As she said this, Blake walked out of the door she went into.

“Okay,” she started, “Kerillian, you have two options. You either catch the next boat out of here, or you stay here in Menagerie, with us.” Kerillian paused and sat back for a second, thinking.

“While I would like to look for my friends,” she said, “I don’t know where any of them are, or if they’re even on Remnant. You guys know Remnant better than I do, so I’ll stay here.” Blake smilled, and Sun rolled his eyes. “And, I’ll prove to you that I am not from here.” she added.

“Sure, whatever. But, some other day, I’m beat.” Sun walked out of the house, and Blake turned to Kerillian.

“Come with me, I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.”

* * *

Although Weiss didn’t exactly enjoy some of his habits, she found Bardin’s company pleasant. It had only been a few hours, but Bardin seemed to genuinely trust her. He told her many stories of heroic do-gooders, dastardly backstabbers, and folks of legend. Some of the stories didn’t sound very true, but he did just appear in Weiss' closet, so her doubts weren’t too high. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut for a minute, but it was nice background noise while she was practicing.

“So this dust, what is it?” he asked. Weiss didn’t even break her stride to answer his question.

“Dust is a concentrated energy for a certain element. We use it as power sources, here on Remnant.”

“Similar to warpstone, eh?”

“What-stone?”

“Warpstone. The Skaven use it to power their contraptions. I have had many close encounters with it. It’s highly unstable.”

“Well, it sounds similar, but it’s not very unstable in the dust form that is typically used.”

“Hmm.” Bardin paused. “You said it was a power source, right? How powerful?”

“Powerful enough to run those airships with twenty crystals.” She pointed to the window, and Bardin saw a few big metal planes fly by.

“Do you think it could power a Gyrobomber?”

“A what?”

“A Gyrobomber. It’s a flying machine not much bigger than this bed.”

“Certainly.”

“What about a Thunder Barge.”

“What is a Thunder Barge?” Weiss stopped practicing and shot Bardin a questioning look.

“Why only the Dawi’s finest craftsmanship. It’s an airship bigger than those ones outside.” Weiss was stunned.

“Bigger than an Atlesian Airship?” she asked herself, “What can’t the Dwarfs make?”

“Anything we put our minds to, dawri. I should know, I am one.”

“I thought you said you never officially became an engineer?”

“Well it’s a quite complicated tale. Perhaps I could tell you it some other time, Wrykvinn.” Weiss had no idea what the word “Wrykvinn” meant. But, she learned quickly that Bardin wasn’t really one for calling people by their actual name, and making him call her by her actual name was near impossible for any reasonable length of time.

“Say, dawri,” Bardin said, “when do you think I’ll be able to leave here?”

Weiss chuckled, “The only way you’re going to get out of here is sneaking out.”

“Ah, that should be easy for someone like myself.”

Weiss stared at him, blankly. “You must be joking.”

Bardin said nothing, but sat there smugly.

“Well then, where do you plan to go afterwards? Atlas is a flying city, after all. You would need an airship to get down from here.”

Bardin paused for a moment. He had heard stories about an ancient race that supposedly lived in the clouds before, but that city is inhabited by the Skytitans, or, rather, it _was_ inhabited by the Skytitans.

“Well then,” Bardin started, “I guess I’ll be leaving when you leave.”

“Bardin, I’m not going to leave. My father wants to keep me in Atlas.”

“Hm, I guess we’ll both be sneaking out.” he said half jokingly.

Weiss paused for a second. She had thought about sneaking out, but she figured it would be almost impossible, without help.

“There’s no way to leave Atlas before we would get noticed,” she said.

“Perhaps that butler of yours could help us dawri. Klein, I think it was?”

Klein was the only other person to meet Bardin besides Weiss. His initial reaction was mixed to say the least. He was, understandably, angry at the dwarf’s random appearance in Weiss’ room. Then confused at his explanation on why he was there. Then, finally, an extreme amount of sorrow for his “rash” actions towards the dwarf.

“That settles it,” Weiss started, “We’ll leave tomorrow.”

“Ah ha ha. Now that’s the spirit dawri!”

* * *

Sienna sat below a tree watching Yang and her father spar with Zwei. It was certainly a spectacle to watch. Her father managed to match her blow for blow. It didn’t come to her as too much of a surprise, considering Saltzpyre's performance on the field despite his old age. Though, he did seem to be holding back, somewhat. Perhaps she was underestimating Tai. Then, in a surprisingly swift action, Yang managed to swipe Tai right off his feet. He seemed done with training for the day after that. He grabbed a towel that was sitting on a nearby stump, and started towards the house. Yang seemed pretty happy after that. Though, something about her robotic arm was throwing her off. She looked at it in disgust, almost. Yang had lost her arm during some event called the Fall of Beacon. She wouldn’t tell Sienna anything else about it; though, she was used to people she had met keeping their past a secret. Yang shook off whatever had grappled her and started walking towards Sienna.

“That was quite the spectacle, darling.”

“Thanks,” Yang said as she sat next to Sienna.

“So, when do you think I’ll be able to leave?”

“In your condition? Not for a few weeks. You got hurt pretty bad, after all.”

“Well...” Sienna pulled out an empty flask from behind her.

“What’s that?” Yang asked.

“It’s a healing draught. It tastes abysmal, but it can heal almost any wound instantly.”

“And you just decided to use it now?”

“Well I only found it when I went back to the spot I appeared in. I don’t remember carrying one, though.”

“Who cares? You’re in better health now, that’s all that matters.”

“I suppose you’re right. Now, about setting out.”

“I was actually planning to go out and find my sister in a few days, you could come with me then.”

“Sounds like a plan, Yang."

* * *

The trip had been uneventful for the two out of place men. The four teenagers didn’t really speak to them, not that Saltzpyre really cared. For all he knew, this was just another Skaven trap. But, the men did overhear the teenagers' conversation about them. They didn’t do a very good job being subtle about it. It wasn’t all of them gossiping about them, though. A few comments from Ruby. A couple of concerns from Jaune. Nothing serious from those two, but Nora couldn’t contain herself. She was going a mile a minute about the most insane conspiracies she could muster. Ren was her unfortunate target for her mad ramblings. Ren played along with it for a while, but Nora got the better for him. Ren had suggested bugging the two men about where they came from instead of him, and Nora gladly fell behind the rest of her team to talk to them, as much as Jaune disapproved of it.

“So...” Nora started, “Where are you two from?”

Saltzpyre didn’t even bother to acknowledge Nora, but Kruber happily answered her question.

“Uh, well, we don’t really have a place to live.”

“So your huntsmen, like us!”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Cool! Can I see your huntsman ID?”

“Uh, I’d rather not pull it out right now. I don’t remember exactly where it is.”

“Wouldn’t just be on your Scroll?”

“That’s what I mean. It’s rather unorganized.”

Nora gave Kruber a very suspicious look. Apparently, she wasn’t as easily satisfied with simple explanations, unlike Ren. But, before Nora could press Kruber for more information, a woman rushed out of the forest, and fell to her knees before the seven wanderers.

“Please help! Grim are about to attack my town! You have to stop them!”

Saltzpyre and Kruber stayed back, deciding to let the teens handle it.

“As hunters and huntresses,” Ruby started, “it is our duty to do so.”

“Great! Quickly, with me!”

Ruby, Ren, and Jaune started running with the woman towards the town, but Nora lagged behind to question Kruber and Saltzpyre.

“You guys said you were huntsmen, right?” Kruber nodded “Well then come on. You have to help defend the town.” As she said this, Nora started booking it towards the town.

“Congratulations, Kruber,” Saltzpyre said, “You’ve managed to rope us into fighting unknown creatures in an unknown area with a bunch of children we just met, all within one afternoon.”

Kruber barely bothered to roll his eyes at Saltzpyre’s remark before setting off towards the town with Saltzpyre in tow. The five barely made it to the town before the grim started pouring in. Despite their combat experience with the Skaven, Kruber and Saltzpyre were having a bit of trouble dispatching the grim. In fact, the teens managed to kill the grim more efficiently than they did.

“Your left, Kruber!” Saltzpyre shouted. He almost didn’t manage to move out of the way to the grim’s attack. Kruber then sliced its arm off with a halberd before it could attack again.

“Why would so many beowolves be attacking right now?” Ren asked, speaking to no one in particular.

“I have no clue,” Saltzpyre said, “but they are no match for trained warriors, like ourselves.” As he said this, a mighty roar came out from the forest.

“Ursa,” Ruby simply put it. Suddenly, five bear sized beasts charged out of the forest. Saltzpyre started ripping off shots into them, but Kruber didn’t. Up until this point, Kruber and Saltzpyre would pepper the incoming grim before hopping into melee. But Kruber realized that his arrows would do little to hurt the ursa, and he was out of ammo for his gunpowder weaponry. So he did the only thing he could think of. The teens easily took down three of the ursa, Saltzpyre managed to land a couple of good shots and kill a fourth, and the fifth charged right for Kruber. Calmly, he spun around to face the monster. Then, he took out a metal helmet with a blue cloth draped across the top and back of it. He put it on, and grabbed the hilt of his long sword. Raising it triumphantly, he exclaimed, “For the Lady!”, grabbing everyone’s attention. He raised the sword above his head as the grim, and it glowed a burning yellow. Kruber brought the sword down as the ursa closed in ever closer, and sliced the beast clean in half. And, with that, the remaining beowolves fled. The townsfolk cheered and thanked the heroes. The mayor gathered everyone in the town’s square, and made a big long speech about how the heroes were epic and saved everyone. The mayor droned on for so long Kruber considered sneaking back to the path and waiting for the rest of the group there.

“And, as a final thanks for saving our humble village, here’s some lien to split among yourselves.” Nora and the others took the money happily, but decided to split it once they got back on the road. Once they reached the road, Nora divided the money among the team, then to Kruber and Saltzpyre. But Nora stopped them.

“What do you think you two are doing?” Kruber and Saltzpyre paused and gave Nora a confused look. “You guys need to explain yourselves.”

“What do you mean,” Kruber said, trying to play dumb.

“That thing you did to the ursa; what was it?”

“Er, it was that aura thing you mentioned a while ago. Yeah.”

“Oh really? Then how come your arm is bleeding.” Kruber looked down to see a slash in his armor and blood coming out of it.

“Ugh, listen, the truth is a long story.”

“There’s a long road ahead of us.” Nora interrupted with a devilish smile. Kruber looked at Saltzpyre, and was met with a defeated sigh. Apparently even Saltzpyre could only handle so much of the girl’s antics before his resolve broke.

“Fine, but we keep moving, alright?” The teens nodded, and Kruber continued. “Good. Well then, it all starts with this wizard…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note
> 
> And, with that, the second chapter is done! I hope you guys enjoyed it. It’s a bit shorter, and slower paced, than the first, but the next chapter will be more eventful, I promise. Thanks for all the responses on the first chapter. I didn’t expect to pick up much, but you guys seemed to like it a lot. It motivated me to write this new chapter sooner. My goal is to get one out a week, but that’s not set in stone, it’s purely just a goal I set for myself. I have some interesting new ideas for the upcoming chapters, but things will stay relatively calm. For now… Also, do you want me to respond to people’s reviews? Perhaps an extra section at the end just to clarify things a bit or answer questions and such? Let me know because I was thinking about doing something like that, but I don’t know if people would be interested enough to read it. Or, it might spoil some of my plans for future chapters so you guys would rather me not. Anyways, all comments and criticism is welcome, and, hopefully, you’ll stay around until next week for the new chapter!


	3. Setting Fourth

Bardin sat sitting at a desk far too big for him, tinkering on his pistol. It worked, but he wouldn’t be a dwarf if he didn’t try to improve everything. Meanwhile, Weiss packed her suitcase. They planned to sneak out that night. Though, Bardin didn’t seem too troubled by that fact.

”I don’t suppose that you would have any sort of spare parts around here, ey dawri?”

“No. Why would you need them anyway?”

“Oh nothing, just tinkering. But, it’s always a good idea to upkeep your equipment every now again, dawri. Your weapons can never be too maintained.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to find new parts once we leave Atlas.”

“Baagh. All I need is some raw material, and I’ll forge parts better than any man, elf, or rat ever could.”

“Have you ever actually crafted anything before?”

“I’ll have you know that crafting runs through my veins! My father crafted his suit of armor, my cousin Okri crafted his first set at the age of fifthteen, with ore he mined no less! And, I made my own in my father’s footsteps.” As he finished talking, his gun fell to pieces with a loud **_CLUNK_**. The two stared at each other in shock. Then, there was a knock at the door.

“Get down!” Weiss ordered as she moved towards the door. And, she opened the door to see none other than her brother. “Oh, Whitley, it’s you. What could my beloved brother want from me on this fine day?”

“Oh nothing, dear sister. Just checking on my sister to see what all the ruckus is about is about.”

“It’s nothing, I just...dropped something. That’s all.”

“Oh good. I was just making sure nothing happ...ened? What is that leaning against your bed?” Weiss turned around to see that Bardin’s cog hammer was leaning up against her bedpost.

“It’s a hammer. Mother found it in the garden and gave it to me.”

“Did she do it for any reason in particular?”

“No.” Whitley gave Weiss a look of half belief. “Come on Whitley, you know how mother is sometimes.”

“Right, right… Well, I’ll go grab Klein for you, so he can get rid of it.”

“Don’t bother, I actually kind of like it,”

“Suit yourself.” Whitley shrugged and walked off. Once he was a good ways down the hall, Weiss shut the door and let out a sigh of relief,

“That was tad too close for my likings, dawri.” Bardin said. “I suggest we get out of here sooner rather than later.”

“Ditto.”

* * *

Sienna sat waiting in a shed while Yang said her final goodbyes to her father. They were leaving to find Yang’s sister today, but Yang was taking forever to say goodbye. _I suppose that’s what happens when you have somebody to say goodbye to._ She thought to herself, not that she’d know. Her trip from Tilea to the Riek wasn’t exactly the most exciting, but it was very lonely. Before she could dwell on it for too long, Yang came in.

“You ready?”

“Of course, I was just waiting for you.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s not like I have anywhere else to be.”

Yang chuckled. “Yeah. Hop on.” Sienna got on the bike behind Yang, and, with one last wave to her father, they set off. The road they were on ran through a dense forest, and it was more straight than anything. It gave Sienna time to think. Think about them, her team. Where in the world could they be? If Remnant was real as big as Yang said it could take months to find them, if not years. It then dawned on Sienna that Yang and her weren’t so different. Lost, looking for their team, relation to fire, short temper. Perhaps the gods had a sense of humor to their cruelty. Maybe the search wouldn’t be as bad as she thought. Speaking of searches, where the hell was Yang going?

“Yang?”

“Yeah?”

“Where are we going exactly?”

“To find my mother. If there’s one person that knows where my sister is it’s her.”

“Right, and you do know where she is, right?”

“Not exactly, but I know where her gang patrols. If we can get one of her lackies, we can force them to show us where she is.”

“Smart plan, better than most of the ones my team comes up with.”

“I thought you guys were professionals?”

“Professional fighters. The only one with any tactical knowledge is Kruber, but he’d rather just go with everyone else’s plan of ‘smack anyone and anything stopping us while b-lining towards our goal’.”

“Hey, if it works it works.”

“True, but you would expect something a bit more professional than that coming out of a colonel.”

“You’d be surprised at how many leaders just wing it, and hope for the best.”

“To be fair, Kruber is better at improvising than actual planning.”

“Well, that’s why he doesn’t plan.”

“Yes, but it’s still rather disappointing.”

Sienna knew the road ahead was going to be rough, but perhaps luck was on her side when she met Yang. Maybe, just maybe, this trip would be bearable.

* * *

Saltzpyre was already regretting giving Kruber the go ahead to explain where they were from. Nora hadn’t stopped talking since Kruber finished. Asking a million and one questions about anything and everything. He assumed anyway. He stopped paying attention to the whole conversation after Nora started asking questions about stuff that didn’t even relate to the Ubersreik Five, like the inhabitants of Lustria and the Ogre Kingdoms of the East. It wasn’t until he heard someone else start talking that he started caring again.

“So…” Jaune started, “the Empire, everyone just lives together?”

“Yeah,” Kruber responded.

“Like, peacefully?”

“Oh, no. Each province dislikes this one, and likes that one. It’s mostly for stupid reasons too. Stuff like political views and simple disagreements over stuff like trade and promises mostly.”

“Was it ever peaceful?”

“Supposedly. Sigmar apparently had everything in order, then he bloody disappeared.”

“Is Sigmar just a legend? He sounds sort of…mythical, like the Tale of the Two Brothers I mentioned earlier.”

“Sigmar _is_ real,” Saltzpyre interjected, “and he is still around. Just not physically.”

“Who is Sigmar, exactly?” Ren asked.

“The best warrior and leader to ever grace the Old World. He’s the greatest among the gods for a reason.”

“Gods? Plural?”

“Indeed, but the likes of Ulric, Morr, and others are nothing compared to Sigmar.”

There was a slight pause before Ren started talking again. “Hey, Kruber.”

“Hmm?”

“What god do you worship?”

“None, up until recent.”

“Who then?"

Kruber took in a heavy breath and sighed. “ _The Lady_.”

“Why do you sound so defeated?” Nora asked.

“Because I wasn’t exactly planning on worshipping anyone, but it’s too late to turn back now.”

“How do you accidentally start worshipping a god?” Ren said, utterly baffled.

“Well, it was during Festag. Basically just a time of happiness and cheer in the Empire, with a heavy emphasis on drinking. Anyway, we were all in varying states of being drunk. Kerillian is a lightweight, but I can handle quite a bit of alcohol. Which speaks volumes at the fact that she managed to drunkenly convince me to go drink from the Lady of the Lakes’ Grail.”

“It still disappoints me to this day.” Saltzpyre said.

“Hey, I’m no different then I was before.”

“You started yelling at the dwarf for witchcraft.”

“No, I didn’t. Was just suspicious of what he was doing locked up in his room with all that noise.”

“You tried to kick the door down. And, when that didn’t work, you tried to convince Sienna to burn down the door instead.

“And she almost did, if it wasn’t for that damn elf… At Least my fighting didn’t change.”

“You only used a longsword for a week straight.”

“Not just a longsword. I also used other melee weapons.”

“And completely avoided anything else.”

“I’ll have you know that using any sort of ranged tool for combat goes strictly against Grail Knight’s code of honor.”

“Why did you care about some Bretonnian code of honor? You're from the Empire for Sigmar’s sake!”

“I was just blessed by their god. I figured at least a little respect was due towards their customs. But, that was all in the past. I’m still standing here now.”

“You could have died, Kruber.”

“What?” Ruby questioned. “How?”

“There’s a myth that anyone not pure of heart would die if they drank from the Grail. And it sure felt like I was going to die a few seconds after I drank it, but then I was reinvigorated with this glowing strength, like I just had a strength potion or something, but much stronger. I guess I’m more pure of heart then I give myself credit for.”

“Or, it could have just been a myth in the first place.” Saltzpyre added.

“Either way, I’m still alive and blessed by the lady.”

“Yes…” Saltzpyre paused for a moment and looked towards the sky. “It’s getting late, we should stop for camp.”

“Yeah. I’ll keep first watch.”

“Why? Nothing has attacked us, yet.” Nora asked.

“Nothing has attacked us, _yet_. If there’s one thing Saltzpyre taught me, it’s that the worst is bound to happen if you give it enough time. So I’ll be keeping the first watch”

The six chose to set camp at a clearing nearby the path. The ones from Remnant set their sleeping bags down and slept, but Kruber and Saltzpyre didn’t sleep.

“Kruber,” Saltzpyre started, “do you genuinely think that we should accompany them until we reconvene with the others?”

“I don’t see why not, they have proven to be trust-worthy up to this point.”

“How can you be sure?”

“They offered for us to join them, gave us some money, and haven’t backstabbed or abandoned us yet.”

“I suppose you are right, but I have a feeling there is something they aren’t telling us.”

“Maybe, but you’ll snuff it out, eventually. You always do. It is your job after all”

“I suppose you’re right, Kruber.”

Saltzpyre turned to face the fire the group had set up. It had glowed bright, perhaps not bright enough for what may come next.

* * *

Midnight. Their chance to leave had finally arrived. Weiss had packed anything she would need. Bardin had nothing to pack.

“Come on, dawri. No time like the present.” He said, almost angrily.

They went out of the door and met Klein. Weiss greeted him with open arms, but Bardin gave nothing but a simple nod. The three started down the corridor. The manor was still, not something unusual. Weiss' stride was set, intentional, but the dwarf’s was tense, uneasy almost. His hand was set on his pistol, encased within it’s holder on his hip. It was as if something inside him was churning; though, Weiss couldn’t put her finger on what could have been possibly causing it. Just then, Klein received a call on his scroll, and the party stopped.

“Master Whitley. Yes. Alright, I’ll be there in a moment.” Klein turned towards Weiss and sighed. “Continue to the library, you two. I’ll meet you there.” With that Klein started to head back from where they came.

“Follow me, Bardin.” Weiss said. The two continued walking, and then heard a bang come from a side room. “My father’s office.” Weiss whispered, unprovoked. “Bardin, go ahead. The library is the second staircase on your left. I want to stay here and listen to what’s going on.” Without a word, Bardin went forth. He continued walking and turned a corner. He then stopped by a room with no door. It had a white piano inside it, though everything in this house seemed to be white. He set towards it. It was a rather nice looking piano too, but he must move on. Once he turned to face the door, he noticed a picture hung on the wall. It was one of many, but it struck him as odd. He didn’t recognize the man. Despite not having met many of them, he knew what Weiss’ family looked like. She ended up showing him after he was done telling the tale of his cousin, Okri, and his thrilling slaying of two trolls at once at Karak Eight Peaks. She showed her every member of her family, except for this one. The man wore a red cape, and donned a suit of armor that managed Bardin, somewhat. Before he could study it for too long, Weiss rushed into the room.

“What’s a matter, dawri?”

“We have to go, now. My father and the general just stopped talking.” The two swiftly left the room.

Without skipping a beat, Bardin asked, “What did they say, Weiss?”

“The General is planning to have Atlas under full lockdown in a week.”

“It’s good that we decided to leave when we did, then.”

“Agreed.” Before long, they arrived in the library. “Klein?” Weiss called. “Klein, are you here?” Suddenly, he appeared from behind a bookshelf.

“Right here.” A loud bang came from upstairs.

“Klein! Get up here now!” somebody called.

“Listen. You two head down this hall, I have to go deal with that.”

Weiss hugged Klein. “Thank you, for everything.”

“You’re welcome, Weiss.” Bardin wasn’t one for sentimental stuff, so he patiently waited for them to have their moment. It didn’t last for too long, thankfully for him, and Klein walked off. Weiss shut the secret passage’s entrance behind them.

“Keep moving, dawri. We may be out of the mansion, but we are not out of hot water yet.”

* * *

The night had crawled for Kerillian. Despite spending most of her nights at the Keep awake, time here seemed to just drag on. She could only write so much in her notebook before she ran out of things to write. The day didn’t pass any fast, however. She spent the whole day trying to recruit faunus to go against the White Fang with Blake and Sun. Though many on the island seemed to not enjoy the idea of sparking a war against a claimed-to-be terrorist organization on their peaceful isle, Blake and Sun never stopped trying to recruit people to their side. They headed to Blake’s house for some dinner before trying to recruit the nocturnal faunus. Though the food on Menagerie had an acquired taste for outsiders, Kerillian seemed to not mind.

“Thank you for the food, Kali.” She started. “I can’t thank you enough for housing me.”

“Oh don’t mention it, Kerillian. Everyone here on Menagerie treats guests like this.”

“Except for some.” Kerillian turned an eye towards Sun who was casually sitting back and picking at his teeth.

“Hey!” He said as he snapped to attention. “I’m starting to warm up to you.”

“Yet, you still don’t believe me.”

“Because you still haven’t proven it to me.”

“I haven’t had time to.”

“Then, let’s go get a head start on the nocturnal section so you can. I’ll go grab Blake.” Sun walked out onto the balcony, and left Kerillian alone in the living room. Though, it wasn’t long before the sliding door to the balcony opened once more. Kerillian turned around and was about to greet however opened the door, but she stopped herself once she saw the concern on Blake’s face. Something was horribly wrong, and it was quite obvious. Blake walked past Kerillian and out the front door without even acknowledging her. Sun peaked in his head from the balcony.

“What’s wrong with her?” Kerillian asked.

“I’m not sure, but she said she had to go do something.”

“So are we going recruiting without her?”

“No, we’re going to follow her. I have a feeling something is very wrong.”

“Better than wasting time recruiting.”

* * *

The five found new energy after a good night’s rest. However, there was nothing to spend it on. The low amount of grim activity, although extremely suspicious, meant that there was little on the path left to challenge them. Perhaps some bandits; though, they usually know better than to try and challenge five huntsmen. The five didn’t dwell on that for very long, however. Nora, somehow, still had more questions. And, she asked them, right up until they came across something rather weird.

“What’s that up ahead?” Jaune asked.

“Looks like a village.” Ruby replied.

“More likely a fort of some sort, seeing as it’s in the middle of the road.” Kruber corrected.

“Well, if we want to keep going then we have to go through it.” Saltzpyre added. A silence fell over the group, and they all made a nonverbal agreement to just keep going. As they walked into the runs, a chill ran up Kruber’s spine. Nothing about this setting that was particularly out of place for an abandoned settlement, nor did this compare to the atrocities that he had witnessed before this point, but something just was off about this place.

“I don’t get it.” Kruber turned around and saw Jaune looking at a map. “This place isn’t marked on the map.”

“Where are we then?” Nora asked.

“Oniyuri.” Ren said grimly. He was standing in front of a stone sign with the very name he just said on it.

“What happened to this place?”

“Years ago, the wealthy of Mistral were unhappy about how the kingdom was being run. So, they decided to make their own kingdom with their own rules. It was supposed to be the kingdom of the future. Too bad it never got finished.” Ren paused and looked towards the half finished town.

“Let’s keep moving.” Jaune was the one who broke the silence. “This place gives me the creeps.” Once more in silence, the group walked through the archway to the next area of the town. The town expanded further to the right of them, but the road, luckly, made a straight shot through the town. But, before they could leave, something caught Kruber’s eye.

“Is that an ammo cache, Saltzpyre?” He said. Saltzpyre turned his head to the direction Kruber was pointing. He walked closer to it to get a better view.

“Indeed it is, Kruber.”

“A bit odd that it’s out here.”

“No more odd than anywhere else we find them.”

“Wait a minute, this is from your world?” Nora piped in.

“Indeed. They seem to be everywhere important, even when they don’t belong.” Saltzpyre replied.

“Like that one norse-men camp or the skaven warrens. Maybe Okri leaves them.”

“Kruber, Okri isn’t real. Even if he was he wouldn’t be able to put them in the places we’ve seen them.”

“I don’t know about that one, sir. That dwarf seems like a god to me. I don’t doubt that he could.”

“As much as Bardin may claim otherwise, that dawrf’s “cousin” doesn’t exist. Even if he was he wouldn’t be a god.” An air of annoyance was noticeable in Saltzpyre’s voice.

“Either way, we should be happy that it’s here. Maybe one of you should also look through it, you might find something in here.” Kruber said, addressing the kids.

“I doubt it.” Ruby said. “Since it’s from your world.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Just don't take too long.” Jaune barked, the agitation in his voice was quite audible. Kruber and Saltzpyre dug through the create without a care, filling their satchels with as much ammo as they could grab. The crates seemed bottomless, though none of the Ubersreik Five knew that for sure. Suddenly, Ren drew Stormflower from his holsters, causing Kruber and Saltzpyre to drop what they were doing and draw their repeater weapons. The rest of the team followed suit.

“What is it, Ren?” Jaune asked. Ren didn’t flinch, nor did he acknowledge Jaune’s question. He just stood there, frozen in time. As still as a stone...until… A figure jumped over their heads and landed perfectly on their feet behind them. The figure turned out to be a tall, spindly man wearing a brown coat. Before any formalities could be made, the man rushed towards the group in a frenzy. Ren intercepted him, but missed every shot and stab. He then ran towards Ruby, who wasn’t able to react in time and received a nasty hit from the man’s weapons, only blocking part of it. He went for Kruber next. Hesitant to fire, Kruber instead blocked the man’s attack with his repeater. Seeing his brother-in-arms in danger, Saltzpyre spun the barrel of his repeater, ready to unleash all eight shots in one devastating volley, but the man managed to tilt Saltzpyre’s gun up to the sky before he could get any of the shots on target. Kruber charged in to try to hit him with his mace, but the man delivered a swift kick directly into Kruber’s stomach, knocking him back. Keeping momentum, the man ran towards Jaune and jumped onto his shield, a disturbed smile grew across his face once he reached him. Nora was the only one that actually managed to hit him, sending him flying into a nearby building’s wall. Though, it seemed ineffective as the man just emerged from the rubble, instantly reappearing in the very hole he made.

“We’re not looking for a fight!” Jaune exclaimed

“How are you, and why the bloody hell are you attacking us!” Kruber demanded, now holding his musket-like handgun.

The man chuckled. “Who I am matters little to you,” he said, pointing at Kruber and jumping down from the building. “or you,” pointing at Nora now. He repeated this for everyone in the group until he reached Jaune. “or…well, you do interest me.” Jaune was visibly startled, but he still held his weapon firm, threatening the man. “But, you aren’t my _real_ target. You are.” He pointed towards Ruby, and lost his smile as he did so.

“Me?” Ruby asked. The man said nothing, but instead broke out into an immense laughing fit.

“You have five second to explain yourself before I put a ball of lead in between your eyes!” Kruber threatened.

“Aww, the man hidden in armor is trying to threaten me. How cute.” The man said.

“Who sent you!”

The man bent over, and slowly started to laugh maniacally. “Salem. Our queen! OUR GOD!”

“Sigmar is the only true god, heretic.” Saltzpyre corrected. Kruber shifted slightly and shot a look of concern at Saltzpyre.

“Oh, you silly old man. Now is not the time to be spitting out your senial nonsense.”

“Choose your next words carefully, heathen!” Saltzpyre drew one of his pistols from his vest and aimed it at the man. Aggression filled his voice.

“Listen, your beliefs concern me little. Just give me the girl, and I’ll be on my way.”

“You’re not taking her!” Jaune responded, stepping in front of Ruby.

“Oh really?”

“Leave now, infidel.” Saltzpyre barked. “You’re outnumbered and outmatched. This is a fight not worth taking.”

“Wanna bet?” In a flash, the man bolted towards Saltzpyre. Both men were locked in combat, but neither had the clear edge. Everybody else tried to aid, but ultimately swatted away. The clashing of blades was all that filled the air. Then, Ruby did something risky. She lined up a shot, and fired, missing the man by a mile.

“Watch the friendly fire, Ruby!” Kruber said. She said nothing, and a small dust cloud had appeared.

The man cracked. “What else could you expect from a couple of kids?” He was holding Saltzpyre’s two-handed sword in place with his weapons. A few seconds of silence hung around until the dust cleared. Everyone turned their head to now what stood in its wake: Nora. In the blink of an eye, she moved behind the man, and swung her hammer with all her might. A cloud of dust engulfed her and the aggressor, and Saltzpyre stumbled backwards. It took a few seconds for it to clear. Once it did, it revealed the man had blocked Nora’s strike...with a tail.

“Surprise.” he muttered.

“Agh.” Saltzpyre scoffed “An abomination of the Beastmen hoards followed us here?”

“Abomination?” It’s just a faunus.” Jaune replied.

“Whatever it is, it’s going under my bootheel!” Markus barked. As he said this, he brought his longsword down from over his head. The man managed to block it, and slashed Saltzpyre across the chest with the stinger on the end of his scorpion-like tail. Kruber fumbled backwards, and the man made a mad dash for Ruby. He almost made it to her, but was stopped by a bird that...transformed into a man?

“Hey, Ruby.” the new arrival said.

“Uncle Qrow?” she responded. This new man proved quite the match for the group’s assailant, meeting him blow for blow. The group slowed their assault, though still tried to help Qrow where they could. Except for Saltzpyre. He struggled to upright himself against a dilapidated building, fumbling and struggling. He finally managed to upright himself, and, with the rest of his strength, stood upright and unleashed a fury.

“Sigmar... **BLESS. MY. AIM.** ” Despite his current state, Saltzpyre's scream was blood curling. The shot that came out of his gun was fiery, and had enough kick-back to knock the weakened man back onto the ground. Before anyone knew it, the shot connected with it’s target, the stinger on the end of the unknown man’s tail. The thing exploded in, and sent the man cowering backwards, leaving Qrow in his place and stunned. The man grabbed his tail, and started to shake in fear.

“YOU BITCH!” he yelled. Though, Kruber quickly came over to shut him up. A right hook to the face, a mace to the back, then a kick in the backside sent the man running.

“That’ll teach you to mess with old Kruber!” he taunted, as the man left faster than he came. He couldn’t relish in the victory for too long however, as reality soon hit him like a minotaur.

“Augh…” Saltzpyre moaned, as he lay dying both from the poison running through his veins and all the blood he was missing.

“Saltzpyre!” he exclaimed as he sprinted over to him. Once he reached him, Kruber took out a clear flask with a green liquid inside, and put it up to the dying man's lips. He laid motionless on the ground for a few seconds after the flask was empty. Then, he sprung up and started one hell of a coughing fit.

“Argh. Damn draught. Tastes like muddy pig’s piss. I’d almost prefer the poison take me…” Once he was done complaining, Saltzpyre looked up towards everyone, and saw their astonished looks on their faces.

“What?"

“What was that!” Nora exclaimed.

“What was what?” he said, still somewhat dazed.

“The thing you did!”

“It was merely Sigmar’s blessings upon me.”

“And, you managed to do destroy his stinger with it!?”

“Yeah,” Kruber chimed in. “It’s kinda like that thing I did back at that village.”

“Where you chopped that grim in half.” Kruber looked towards who said it, and found Qrow.

“And how do you know about that?”

“Uh,” he stumbled. “It’s a long story. In fact, I have a lot to explain. But, let’s set up camp first. I hope you all like fairy tales.” The man casually walked towards the town’s exit. The same exit their assailant fled out of. Everyone else followed him, except for Kruber who stayed behind with Saltzpyre, who was currently inspecting the cut that was no longer on his chest.

“You all good, sir?” He asked, extending a hand.

“Yes. Thank you, Kruber.” Saltpyre said, pulling himself up.

“Don’t mention it, sir. Hey, is it just me, or does uncle of Ruby’s seem...off.”

“I do think you’re onto something. He seems malevolent, almost.”

“Yeah. Perhaps we should keep an eye on him.”

“Agreed. Though, I’d still be cautious of the rest of them too, Kruber. They are quite the fighters, despite their age.”

“I doubt they’ll try anything.”

“That’s how it always starts, unbased assumptions.”

“Yeah, I guess. Let’s just get moving. Wouldn’t want to get left behind.”

* * *

Unannounced to Blake, Kerillian and Sun were hot on their trail. Unfortunately, Sun wasn’t as stealthy as KeIlian had hoped.

“Stop, following.” Blake said. “Let me talk to Ilia alone.”

“But, Blake…”

“I don’t want to hear it, Sun. She’s a good person, I know she is.”

“She’s a part of the White Fang.”

“I can reason with her.”

“There’s no reasoning with the White Fang.”

“Sun’s right.” Kerillian chimed in. “I know what I say matters little since I didn’t see it firsthand, but there is no reasoning with hatred. My ancestors have experienced that fact first hand.” Blake stopped walking. “There once was a time, ages ago, when the Elves were one, all the elves were united. And, the dwarfs were one of their greatest allies. Then, Malekith was to take the throne next, but the elves denied him it. He became so angry and spiteful that he eventually convinced the dwarfs to declare war on the Elves and started a civil war. That hatred has been around for so long, that even the current Phoenix King has been dragged into the conflict, and the dwarfs still despise Elves, of any kind. If Sun is right about this reforging of the White Fang, every positive relation, every inch of progress the original White Fang made, any sense of tolerance that humans have built up for the faunus will crumble. This needs to be put to a stop before all of that disappears.” There was no response from Blake. For a solid minute silence was the only thing that filled the air. Then she spoke.

“Fine. You can follow me. But, stay behind. I still want to try and talk to her first.”

“Aye.”

“Fine.” And there the argument was settled. The three met on a road two streets over from the spot Ilia wanted Blake at.

“Get a good position on the spot, but don’t move in until I give the signal.”

“You got it, Blake.” said Sun

The two guards made their way up to a rooftop where they could both see and hear the conversation. And they heard everything. Adam’s location, his plans for the White Fang, the fang’s plan for the Belladonnas, and something that seemed a bit too personal for her to be sharing.

“Take her to the docks.” Ilia demanded. She walked off and disappeared into the night, and left her goons for Blake.

“Your time’s up, Blake.” said the spider faunus

“No!” she screamed.

Two on the rooftop took this as the signal to move in. Sun landed feet first on the bat faunus. Before the spider faunus could react, Kerillian hit her with a hagbane arrow causing her to stumble back and start to cough and wheeze. Sun dealt the final blow with a staff to the back to the head.

“Thanks for the aid.” said Blake

“Thanks for the invite.” retorted Sun.

“Come on, we need to get your home, Blake. You heard their plans.” inserted Kerillian

“Right. Sun, call the cops.”

“Got it.” and, with that, the three sprinted to the Belladonna residence as fast as they could. Hopefully they could make it before it was far too late…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A third chapter down! I hope you all enjoyed it. I tried to make it a bit more exciting this time around, hope the extra effort was worth it. I already have a bunch of ideas for future chapters, some of which are quite strange but it is a fanfic after all! So much for you chapter a week, ay? Ah, what’s an inexperienced fanfic writer without overconfidence in their ability anyways? On a more serious note, expect it to take me about the same amount of time for me to write and release future chapters as it did this one. I’m a bit disappointed to say it, but it’s what I’m, realistically, going to need to fully express my ideas and stop procrastinating. I‘m also going to be DMing my first D&D campaign sometime soon, so that’s not going to help things. Beyond that, I’m trying to keep sections in chronological order story wise, so sorry for any messiness that is going to come up. Beyond that, I don’t really have much else to say. So, as previous, all criticism and feedback is welcome, and I hope to see you in the next chapter!  
> Update: Thanks to ViewerPetu, I have corrected a mistake in my story(the bit about the War of the Beard Kerillian talk about). If anyone else spots a mistake like this, feel free to point it out in the comments. I know that this is a fanfic and I will be going to change stuff, but I don’t plan on changing past events like that one(unless it’s because of plot relevance). It was purely a mistake on my end, and I’d appreciate it if people do stuff like that so I can correct myself when I’m wrong.  
> _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
> Review responses
> 
> Upon further deliberation, I have decided that this was a good idea. So, if I have some extra time, I’ll respond to some reviews. Sorry if things turn out a bit vague, I want to try to spoil as little as possible.
> 
> ccl1995: Yeah, the technological gap between the two realms is a bit big. But, I think it’ll be alright. Some of the Warhammer tech can get pretty nutty at times. Plus, I have an idea to balance some things out.  
> Alphasdragon: You’re absolutely right, but I feel like Kruber wouldn’t exactly care about Bretonnian chivalry rules/laws when he doesn’t hail from Bretonnia nor had any prior relation to Bretonnia. My logic is that Kruber would just disregard that fact at some point, and would only exclusively use melee weapons when he is trying to receive blessings from the Lady. I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s also a bit of a stretch that he got the Lady’s blessing in the first place.  
> Guest: Interesting call. Saltzpyre is on the less extreme end of witch hunter prejudice, but he’s not immune to it. He does work with an elf and a wizard, but he more just tolerates them than anything else. He’s extremely suspicious of Kerillian, and she almost straight up admitted to killing men of the Empire before, a huge no-no for obvious reasons. And, he refers to Sienna as a witch, and ultimately hates wizards as much as the next Witch Hunter. Though, Wizards hailing from the Colleges of Magic are sanctioned by the government, so, until the verdict of her trial that will probably never happen comes out, he can’t do anything to her, legally speaking.  
> thisdaniel987: That’s not very poggers of you(my friend posted this as a joke, but it didn’t go through the moderation process for me to get rid of it, so it’s now forever immortalized here in the reviews).

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone. First of all, thanks for reading this. It’s the first thing I have properly written and made public, so any feedback is much appreciated. This is a crossover I am going to be working on in my free time. So, if updates are slow, that’s why. RWBY and Warhammer have little to nothing in common, so I’m going to try and make some things simplified so people from both fandoms can try to get into the story. But, that should only be for the first few chapters, or until I think you guys are well enough acquainted with Warhammer lore. Spoilers for RWBY and Warhammer, obviously, but mostly RWBY. Warhammer lore is a bit messy, especially the lore surrounding the Ubersreik Five and the End Times. If you want to know more about Warhammer Fantasy lore, I recommend watching Loremaster_of_Sotek on YouTube. He has a bunch of highly detailed videos explaining a lot of the lore. The majority of it will probably not be touched for a while, if at all, but reading up on Skaven lore might help for this beginning section. But, hey, maybe you’ll find some of the other parts of the lore interesting too. Besides that, there's not much else. So, again, thanks for reading this, and any and all feedback is appreciated.


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